Tag: Haiti

The latest addition to my website is Germán Espinosa‘s Sinfonía desde el nuevo mundo [Symphony from the New World]. It tells the story of Victorien Fontenier, a French army officer who has fled from Waterloo after the defeat and, at the suggestion of his prospective father-in-law, goes off to Jamaica to deliver guns to Haiti. When he gets there, he finds that he is to give them to the wrong side (not the ordinary people but the well-off who want to restore slavery) so he refuses. He is introduced to Simón Bolívar who is, of course, the right side, and joins up to help the Latin Americans rid themselves of Spanish oppression. Exciting adventures, a mulatto girlfriend called Marie Antoinette and betrayal and the struggle for liberty are all part and parcel of this book, with an independent Colombia the aim.